Reker Construction, Adrian, will complete the final phases of the Luverne Loop trail after submitting the low bid for the construction work.
Phase 4 is almost a mile long and will connect the existing Loop trail from the Highway 75 Economy Lodge area along Hatting Street to the existing trail that dead-ends at the Rock River near the Luverne wastewater treatment plant area.
The most recent construction, Phase 3A, built the Loop from the existing Blue Mound Trail along berm of the Rock River near the city park and behind Redbird Field and southward.
This is the scenic, rural and wooded area along the river formerly owned by Warren Baker. It is enrolled in the permanent conservation easement RIM, Reinvest in Minnesota.
Phase 3B is .75 miles and will bring the trail at the north end of the community, around Sanford area and east to connect with the Blue Mound Trail.
The total cost of the project is $806,864, which includes an alternate bid to use concrete instead of asphalt.
“It is the opinion of staff and engineers that the concrete section around the waste water treatment area, which is close to the river, would have a longer life expectancy and lower long-term maintenance costs compared to asphalt,” said City Administrator John Call.
“John Stoffel was very adamant about that. … It’s just a better product for that area.”
Call said there’s also a creek crossing in this area, which is part of RIM — a permanent conservation easement through Reinvest in Minnesota.
A $130,000 culvert (previously bid) will be built for the creek.
“So, if you add that on to this, and you add the engineering, the total cost of the project is close to $1.1 million, which is actually very close to the state’s estimate,” Call said.
The project has received an $839,300 grant from the state of Minnesota, and the city will match 30 percent of the project, $359,700.
“That’s a 70-30 match, so I think the council and our citizens can feel very good about that,” Call said.
Mayor Pat Baustian said there’s interest among residents and visitors alike in the Loop being complete.
“It will be great to get it done. What an attribute for our community,” Baustian said.
“I was in Adrian where people were asking me when it will be done. There’s interest in other communities in using the trail.”
The Loop and the Blue Mound Trail to the state park offers 13 contiguous miles, which is popular among users and prompted the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission to name the Loop a “Regional Trail of Significance.”
That designation qualifies the local trail for more grant funds and other state support.

Hills-Beaver Creek School Board members approved the 2022-23 school calendar at their Feb. 28 meeting.
Classes will begin Tuesday, Sept. 6, for the 2022-23 school year and end Friday, May 26, 2023.
Graduation is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, May 26.
The newly approved calendar outlines 10 early dismissals and holiday breaks, similar to the current school year calendar.
 
In other business, the H-BC school board
•approved spring coaching assignments of Dan Ellingson as golf coach with Caleb Ellingson as volunteer assistant coach, Rex Metzger as track head coach with Dalton Bass as assistant coach and Darin DeBoer as junior high coach.
•accepted the resignation of Jill Stiefvater as special education teacher effective at the end of the 2021-22 contract year.

Luverne School Board members approved the 2022-23 school year calendar during their rescheduled meeting Monday night, Feb. 28.
The calendar (like the current school year) changes the number of days during key holiday breaks.
The 2022-23 school year begins Tuesday, Sept. 6, and ends Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Graduation is approved for Sunday, May 28, 2023.
A third day was added to the Thanksgiving break (Nov. 23-25) and the number of days off for winter break was reduced (Dec. 21-Jan. 3, 2023.
Presidents Day holiday will be two days (Feb. 17 and 20, 2023) and Easter break will be three days (April 6, 7 and 10, 2023).
Board members discussed six calendar versions during two work sessions on Feb. 11 and prior to the Feb. 28 board meeting before accepting one option at the board meeting.
Luverne Education Association members indicated they preferred the 168 student days option and one in which the two semesters contained even days (84).
Staff also requested extra time during the school year to collaborate with colleagues. Four early outs were proposed for staff development.
“My thought would be to try two early outs prior to Nov. 1 so that any staff development could be beneficial to the current school year and be relevant to student success for 2022-23,” said Superintendent Craig Oftedahl.
Board members agreed to two early out sessions. Specific days are yet to be determined.
 
Retirements
At their Feb. 28 meeting, Luverne School Board members accepted the retirements of three longtime educators.
Theresa Graff, speech/language pathologist, retires effective June 1.
Jennifer Engesser, elementary teacher, retires effective June 30.
Elementary teacher Sandy Klosterbuer retires effective at the end of the current school year.
 
In other business, board members:
•hired Anita Cole-Kraty as middle-high school paraprofessional effective Feb. 7, Danielle Kneip as middle school softball coach, and Katelyn Hart as assistant track coach.
•approved medical/maternity leave for Alicia Reker, elementary teacher, beginning April 11 for the remainder of the school year, and hired Rylie Hokeness as long-term substitute beginning April 11.
•approved JJ Olson as volunteer softball coach and transferred Phil Paquette as ninth-grade baseball coach to head baseball coach.

Meetings
Luverne Lions Club will meet at 6 p.m. Monday, March 14, in the Pizza Ranch for supper with a guest speaker followed by a business meeting. Visitors welcome.
 
Mobile dental clinics scheduled
Mobile dental clinics will be in Luverne Wednesday, April 6 and Thursday, April 7, at the Rock County Health and Human Services community room.
These clinics provide dental care for adults and children ages infant through 100. Call 612-746-1530 to schedule an appointment. All forms of insurance accepted. The clinics are organized by the #Luv1LuvAll initiative, Rock County Oral Health Task Force.
 
Free food for seniors March 17
A.C.E. of SW MN will offer Nutrition Assistance Program for Seniors (NAPS) 60 and older from 2 to 3 p.m. Thursday, March 17, in a drive-through format in the parking lot at 319 E. Lincoln, Luverne. Household income guidelines have changed. Call Linda Wenzel at 283-5064 for more information. Pre-registration is required.
 
Sanford Health accepting scholarships
Students in select Sanford Health Network locations are invited to apply for a health network scholarship. The $2,000 scholarships are for students pursuing a post-secondary degree in a health care-related field.
Each participating Sanford network facility will sponsor one student with a scholarship.
Send all questions to educationalassistance@sanfordhealth.org.
 
New Life food giveaway moves to ATLAS
New Life Celebration Church’s third Thursday monthly food giveaway is now at the ATLAS building at 101 W. Maple Street in Luverne. The next distribution is at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 17.
Enter from Maple Street and stay along the WEST side of the building. (Do not block the Redeemed Remnants parking lot.) Food will be loaded into vehicles which will then exit via the alley going WEST toward Estey Street. Call 507-283-4366 with questions.
 
‘More than Sad’ suicide information March 28
Cassie Linkenmeyer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention will be in Luverne again from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday, March 28, at Luverne Community Education. Parents, educators and students will learn how to recognize signs of depression and other mental health problems, initiate conversations and get help. Register by calling 507-283-4742. Fee is $5.
 
Free tax preparation at library
AARP volunteers offer free tax preparation for low-income individuals and seniors at the Rock County Library on Mondays through April 15. Call 507-449-5040 for appointments. Bring documents, including last year’s tax return, and a form of identification to document social security number. Masks are required.
 
Community Ed
Call Cindy at Luverne Community Education, 507-283-4724, to register for classes. Community Ed’s website is www.isd2184.net, select Luverne Community Education under schools.
Students in grades K-12 can sign up now for summer community ed T-ball, baseball or softball before March 28. Fees are lower in March and this ensures placement on a team.
Register preschoolers for Spanish class (ages 4 and 5 not yet in school) that begins on March 10.  Research shows that learning a second language improves memory, concentration, listening skills and more. Fee is $24.
Participants Grade 5 through adult, will Make Your Own Drinking Cup on March 12. Fee is $15.   
 See examples of start to finish design and manufacture at Intro to 3D Printing on March 14. Fee is $8.
Learn the ins and outs of the Rock County Community Library at Library 101 on Tuesday, March 15. Fee is $5
Register for the Refresher Defensive Driving class to be held in Edgerton Public School on March 17 at 5:30 pm.  Fee is $28.  
Children ages 2-5 with parent will enjoy Open Gym on March 18. There is no fee, but registration is required.
 
Kindergarten Round-Up
Luverne Kindergarten Round-Up will be from 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, March 24, at the Luverne Elementary School. Parents and children will participate in an informal “meet and greet” open house. A staggered schedule is as follows:
•5:30 to 6 p.m. for last names beginning with A-G
•6 to 6:30 for last names beginning with H-M
•6:30 to 7 for N-Z
Children must be 5 years old before Sept. 1, 2022, to register for kindergarten. Call the elementary office at 283-4497 with questions.
 
Rock County Library Happenings
For more information about library happenings, call 507-449-5040 or email rockcountystaff@gmail.com
The 2022 Winter Reading Program, “Catch a Keeper at your Library,” is currently under way and goes through March 31. Read or listen to 12 books checked out from the Rock County Library and win a fabulous prize. Winter Reading Bingo will also be played. Bingo sheets are available now at the library.
Story Time with Bronwyn takes place 10:30 a.m. Fridays through April 29.
Bring your creative selves to Bad Art Night at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 17, at Take 16, and compete to see who can make the worst piece of art with provided supplies. The less artistic ability you have, the better. Prizes will be awarded.
Trivia Night is at 7 p.m. the first Thursday of every month at Take 16 in Luverne. Team registration begins at 6 p.m.
Reminiscence Kits are available featuring various topics such as gardening, pets, baking, sewing, farming and hunting. The kits are designed to use with a loved one experiencing memory loss, encouraging the loved one to open up about activities they once loved in the past.
 
Goehle gym open Sundays through March 27
The Hugo Goehle gymnasium in Hills is open for public recreation from 1 to 3 p.m. Sundays now through March 27.
 
Online mental health classes continue
NAMI Minnesota (National Alliance on Mental Illness) will offer free online mental health classes in February. The classes are designed for family members and caregivers, persons living with mental illness, service providers and also for the general public. Go to namimn.org and click on “classes.”
 
A.C.E. respite care available, volunteers needed
A.C.E. of SW Minnesota (A.C.E.) offers respite care services in Rock County for those needing a break from caring for a loved one.
The respite program offers short-term (1-3 hours), temporary care for families and caregivers by providing a brief period of reprieve from the daily cares they provide to their loved one.
Volunteers provide non-professional supportive services to caregivers to give them time for themselves, relieve their stress and help them remain healthy.
Respite care volunteers are also needed. Trained A.C.E. volunteers provide respite care to family caregivers of adults age 60 and older who are suffering from long-term health conditions.
Contact Linda Wenzel at 507-283-5064 or ace.rock@co.rock.mn.us.
 
Nominations sought for Rock County Hall of Fame
The Rock County Historical Society’s Hall of Fame Committee is seeking nominations for the 2022 induction of current and former residents.
Nominees must have a significant identity with Rock County and have made an exceptional contribution to society, achieved exceptional success, and brought honor and prestige beyond the borders of Minnesota.
Nominations are accepted now through Feb. 28, 2022. Forms are available at The History Center, Luverne Area Chamber or online at www.rockcountyhistorical.com or www.luvernechamber.com. An awards presentation is scheduled for July 17, 2022.

My last “Know It and Grow It” column gave you some information about how our indoor plants respond to the photoperiod or lengthening days of early spring. After being nearly dormant for four months, they are eager to start active growth.
If you have a plant that is getting too tall, now is when to do a little pruning to get back to where that plant will look balanced and proportioned.
Often upright-growing plants have several stems in the container. The most effective way to prune them and still keep the plant looking good is to prune a couple of the tallest stems back to 8 inches above the soil.  These stems will develop new growth but in the meanwhile, the remaining unpruned stems cover these “stumps” until they develop new leaves.
The process is repeated the next year and depending on the number of stems, probably the following year as well.
The neat part of this process is that usually each stem that is cut comes back as two stems in the place of the one you cut off, thereby giving the plant a much fuller look.
If the plant that is demanding more space than you want to give happens to be a vining plant, you need to take stem tip cuttings that are no more that 6 inches long. This is the most tender growth and will root much more quickly than older wood. Put the cuttings in a vase or jar with 3 inches of water and keep it in similar light to what it has been used to.
Philodendron, pothos, German, Swedish, and English ivy are all candidates for this type of propagation. If you use a clear glass container to root the cuttings, you can easily tell when to add water and you can also see when the roots develop.
To achieve a full-looking specimen plant, I will usually plant five or six cuttings together in the same pot. Again, start with a fairly small pot, probably 4 inches wide. As the vines begin to grow, you can shift up to a 6-inch pot.
       If this propagation activity is too overwhelming for you, you can just toss the old plant and start with a new one.
       Active growth means active appetite. When there is little new growth happening, the plant isn’t going to need much fertilizer. That changes when active growth resumes in the spring, so now is the time to use a water-soluble plant food in the water once per month.
If a plant isn’t getting adequate nutrition, it will often drop older leaves in an attempt to maintain the new growth … it’s called survival.

Larson Crane Services, Worthington, began the arduous task of demolishing the grain elevator in Beaver Creek Tuesday morning. The 125-foot-tall wooden elevator hasn't stored grain for over a decade; it was being used for only for its office and scale. New Vision Co-op put up three new bins — with a total grain storage capacity of 1.1 million bushels — 15 to 20 years ago. The old elevator will be replaced with a new office and scale in limit for harvest this fall.

The Minnesota Organization for Habilitation and Rehabilitation (MOHR) organized a Virtual Disability Services Day at the Capitol on March 8.
The rally calls attention to a workforce crisis as the primary cause of the extended delays in access to employment and other day supports for people with disabilities.
Adria Benson, co-director of Rock County Opportunities in Luverne, participated online.
“Any help in that area from legislators, whether it be for wage increases or retention bonuses, would be greatly appreciated,” Benson said.
“The staff here work very hard to provide good, quality services to the individuals that we support.
According to MOHR, over 3,500 individuals with disabilities are on waiting lists to access needed employment and day enrichment supports, due to unprecedented levels of staff vacancies.
Benson said the crisis hasn’t reached that level in Luverne, but hiring is always a challenge.
“RCO has been very fortunate in this aspect. At the beginning of the pandemic, we did have to shut down and lay off staff,” she said.
“It was a very slow reopening process, and we couldn’t bring back more clients until we had more staff.”
She said there is no longer a local waiting list for services, and RCO is training another Direct Support Professional.
“That will give us the ability to allow any clients waiting for services to be able to attend our program,” Benson said.
“We recognize that this is not the case in many areas. It has not always been easy to find the right staff throughout all of this, but we have been lucky to receive good, quality applicants at times we needed to add another staff member.”
She said wages are always an issue in attracting qualified staff.
“At this time, we pay pretty competitively for this field, but this field is typically an underpaid one,” she said.
MOHR is proposing adjustments to Minnesota’s Disability Waiver Rate System to use more current economic data to update the reimbursement rates that service providers use to pay their staff and provide services.
A second proposal is aimed at short-term steps to be taken immediately to stabilize the disability waiver services workforce. Employee scholarship grants, child care relief and onetime retention payments for staff are part of this proposal.
A third proposal from MOHR asks for increased access to “Employment Exploration” services for people with disabilities who are interested in competitive, community-based work. Its aim is to align wage data for staff to match similar service types. 
More information can be found at mohrmn.org.

Communities in southwest Minnesota are joining forces to address labor shortages in several affected occupations.
Mayors in the cities of Luverne, Pipestone, Worthington, Jackson, Marshall, Canby and Granite Falls have organized as Southwest Minnesota Council of Mayors to work on issues affecting all their communities.
The labor shortage is on top of their list, and they’re proposing a pilot program that aims to attract and retain workers in southwest Minnesota through paid education in technical fields.
The targeted occupations include carpentry, mechatronics, automotive, plumbing, auto technology, agriculture diesel, electrical, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
Modeled after “Build South Dakota,” the program would provide up to $8,000 of tuition payments per year for students who enroll in a two-year course of study at Minnesota West and commit to work in one of the targeted occupations in southwest Minnesota for at least three years.
The students’ tuition is structured as a three-year forgivable loan; each year is forgiven as long as the student is living and working in southwest Minnesota.
The group of mayors is requesting $600,000 per year in state funding for the five-year pilot program for a total request of $3 million. These funds would be combined with locally leveraged funds of $150,000 each year.
Baustian said the group is hoping that the state funding will be provided during this legislative session.
“We lose nothing if we do nothing, but we have everything to gain if we add to our workforce development and our trades,” Baustian said.
Rep. Rod Hamilton is jacketing the bill in the house, and Sen. Bill Weber is doing the same in the Senate.
The mayors received the draft bill today and will meet with their respective legislators Wednesday.
The mayors said they formed the group because together they represent about 44,000 people, which might help them when seeking legislative solutions.
“Especially as border communities, we share issues in common,” Baustian said. “And with our workforce, we’ve watched as South Dakota and Iowa are drawing our kids away from Minnesota. It was time to do something.”
They plan to continue to meet to address other issues that affect southwest Minnesota.

The mental health system in the United States is currently in a state of crisis. Consider the following:
•In 2019, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 19.86 percent of adults in the U.S. experienced a mental illness, equivalent to nearly 50 million Americans.
•Suicidal ideation continues to increase among adults in the United States, with 4.58 percent of adults reporting serious thoughts of suicide. This is an increase of 664,000 people in the past year.
•A growing percentage of youth in the United States live with major depression. More than 15 percent of youth (ages 12-17) experienced a major depressive episode in the past year, a 1.24-percent increase from the prior year.
•Over half of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment, totaling over 27 million adults in the U.S. who are going untreated.
•Over 60 percent of youth with major depression do not receive any mental health treatment.
•Nationally, fewer than 1 in 3 youth with severe depression receive consistent mental health care.
•Both adults and youth in the U.S. continue to lack adequate insurance coverage.
•Rates of substance abuse have been increasing for both adults and youth, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These are just a few of the staggering statistics that indicate the mental health system in serious crisis.
People with mental health issues are being challenged every day as they attempt to navigate the current mental health system.
Many of them are suffering needlessly. Add to this the stigma and discrimination that society still places on people with mental health issues and you have a mental health system in serious crisis.
Over the past several decades there has been a lot of talk about fixing the mental health system, but there hasn’t been much in the way of action.
We need a mental health system that works for everyone.
I would like to hear your opinions and thoughts on the current mental health system and what we need to do to correct these issues.
I may be reached at gottahavehope38@gmail.com or by letter to 559 W. Broadway St; Winona, MN 55987.
 
Editor’s note: There are local efforts afoot to address mental health needs in the community. #Luv1LuvAll has a Brain Health Committee working to improve services and access to services for local residents who need them. Follow them on Facebook, Luv1LuvAll.